Reading Log 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Reading Log 1 - Essay Example The child was raised in the family of her mother. The baby was taken home from the hospital to be cared for by her grandfather and aunts. No significant signs of abuse of the baby. However, the adult woman can vividly recall, in great detail the suffering and abuse that she suffered at the hands of the eldest sister of her mother who was assigned by the family to become the child's care taker. Sylvia recalls significant events of abuse that left her with a significant trauma both physically and emotionally. She has trust issues and finds it difficult to make friends as her aunt had raised her in a highly private and secretive atmosphere. No playmates or play dates were allowed. The child in essence was turned into a little adult who was oftentimes beaten up for acting like the child that she was either in public or private. Part of the abuse included locking her in the closet when she failed to clean up her room, dragging her out of the family home with her clothes being thrown out a s well once she failed to produce a passing mark in her school subjects, and threatening to kill the child when the child tried to fight off the physical abuse or tell other people about what was happening to her. Sylvia has carried this secret with her for the past 39 years and she has tried to overcome the nightmares of the trauma and abuse that she suffered by trying to lead a normal life. ... Sylvia due to the fact that she was but a helpless child when she was thrust into the abusive situation had no idea that she was in a destructive relationship with her caretaker. She thought of the physical abuse as part of the learning process of life. That she had to be hurt in order to learn how to do things properly. She equated the beatings with what she was told was her learning disability. That she was not capable of doing anything right the first time because she was a woman and therefore took longer to learn how to do things. This was a point of view that she carried with her for most of her life, up until the death of her abuser almost 10 years ago. Just like any abuser, her aunt relied on the fact that no adult would believe the stories that a 6 year old child would tell them about the beating that she was undergoing on a daily basis. She took pride in the fact that she could verbally threaten the child into keeping her secret in the guise of giving the child a life threat ening beating should the child attempt to tell anyone of the abuse. She preyed on the isolation of the child by threatening to throw her out of the house when the child felt like standing up for herself during certain physical abuse situations. It was only later on that Sylvia found out that her aunt was also the product of a physically abusive household. The aunt, who shall be hidden behind the name of Genie was raised as a helper in the household of her grandmother during World War 2. Her grandmother was also physically abusive and treated her grand daughter no better than she treated the maids. Genie was caught in a cycle of abuse and became an adult abuser because, from what I gleaned from the history of the family, she never managed to exact a type of